Strikes on Iran Showed Value of Stealthy Subs Launching Lots of Missiles

A US Navy guided-missile submarine launched dozens of missiles into Iran as part of the larger US attack on the country’s nuclear program, the vessel’s Tomahawk cruise missiles doing significant damage.

President Donald Trump singled out US submarines and the fleet’s guided-missile submarines after the strikes, praising them as “far and away the strongest and best equipment we have” and “the most powerful and lethal weapons ever built.”

But despite the latest demonstration of their power, the days of the US fleet’s biggest missile shooters are numbered.

No other US warship carries even close to as many cruise missiles as its four aging Ohio-class cruise missile subs, raising questions about coming capabilities and filling that gap.

Strikes on Iran

The US military launched a massive strike on Iran’s nuclear program, targeting facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan on Saturday.

While much of the focus for the Operation Midnight Hammer strikes has been on the B-2 Spirit bombers and the huge bombs they dropped, another key part of the operation involved a Navy guided-missile submarine firing from an undisclosed location in the Middle East.

In comments about the operation, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine didn’t specify which submarine was involved, and the Navy and the Office of the Secretary of Defense declined to discuss it due to operational security concerns.

The term “guided-missile submarine,” which Caine used, refers to the Navy’s Ohio-class SSGNs, and the large number of missiles launched during the operation also points to an Ohio-class boat.

Ohio-class submarines, built by General Dynamics’ Electric Boat division, were originally a force of 18 nuclear-powered ballistic missile vessels first commissioned in 1981 with a sole mission of the highest stakes: carrying missiles with nuclear warheads. In the 2000s, the Navy converted four of them into cruise-missile submarines, ending their role in the nuclear forces and turning them into the US fleet’s most stealthy and numerous missile shooters.

Although they’re now 40 years old, these capable submarines are some of the quietest in the world, Bryan Clark, a retired Navy submarine officer and defense expert at the Hudson Institute, told Business Insider.

“This is in large part because of their size, which allows for substantial dampening and sound silencing equipment,” he said, “as well as their aggressive maintenance program. Each SSGN carries 154 Tomahawk missiles and can carry about two dozen special operators.”

SSGN is an abbreviation for “subsurface guided nuclear,” with SS standing for submarine, G for guided missile, and N for nuclear propulsion.

Those four subs can launch more than half of the missiles the Navy’s submarine fleet is able to fire from vertical launch systems, according to the service.

Even the newest attack subs carry only a small fraction of an SSGN’s missile arsenal, and surface warships must carry a mix of missiles in their vertical launchers to defend against aerial threats.

This past weekend’s attack on Iran included 75 precision-guided weapons in total, including GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetration bunker-buster bombs dropped by US Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bombers. Trump, in the Monday Truth Social post that praised subs, said one SSGN had launched 30 Tomahawk missiles in total during the attack.

Reduced firepower

The Navy plans to decommission two of its Ohio-class SSGNs in 2026 and the other two in 2028, replacing them with Virginia-class Block V submarines. These won’t be dedicated cruise missile submarines, but they will boast greater firepower than earlier Virginias.

Military leaders and experts have expressed concerns about the replacement plan and the loss of missile capacity.

“The US will experience a big drop in its capacity for stealthy missile attacks,” Clark said. The Block V Virginia-class attack submarines will each be able to carry up to 40 Tomahawk missiles, far less than the Ohio SSGNs, a concern as the US attempts to turn its focus to higher-end threats and potential conflicts.

This means Navy officials will have to deploy four or more Virginia-class attack subs to fire as many long-range missiles, reducing the number of attack subs for other missions they are specially built for: surveillance and ship-killing.

Additionally, the Ohio-class SSGNs have two crews of about 150 sailors that rotate the sub back and forth, allowing it to maximize its deployed time. Over two decades of operations, these subs have earned reputations as workhorses.

Another problem is that the Block V submarines are facing years-long delays and rising costs due to persistent US Navy shipbuilding problems that could leave a capability gap.

A Navy review last year estimated the delay to contract delivery for Virginia Block Vs at approximately 24 months. Other top-priority programs, like the Constellation-class frigate, Virginia Block IV submarines, and Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, are also behind schedule.

The Trump administration has made fixing the shipbuilding problems contributing to these delays a top priority, standing up an office in the White House dedicated to shipbuilding.

Recent congressional hearings have examined a number of problems, some dating back decades to the end of the Cold War. Issues like competitive pay for shipbuilders, workforce and labor problems, and training and shipbuilding capacity woes have repeatedly caused programs to run behind,

With the Virginia-class Block Vs delayed, retiring the Ohio-class submarines could limit the stealthy cruise-missile strike capabilities of the Navy’s submarine force.

“Unless the Navy delays the Ohio retirements, the Navy’s submarine-launched missile capacity will not return to today’s levels until the mid-2030s,” Clark said, when the Virginia Block Vs are expected to be completed.

And even when the Block Vs are delivered, they won’t bring the same firepower.